Chinese man blows off hands, builds new pair

Plucky Chinese gent Sun Jifa showed the world exactly what persistence, and a rudimentary knowledge of welding and prosthetics, can do when it emerged this week that he built his own bionic hands after accidentally blowing the originals off.

The 51-year-old from Guanmashan, in the northern province of Jilin blew off his hands and lower arms when explosives he was fiddling in preparation for a blast fishing trip went off prematurely, according to the Daily Mail.

Unable to pay the local hospital an arm and a leg for a professionally made prosthesis, Sun was apparently forced to go it alone and set about fashioning his own from scrap metal over a period of eight years.

A rudimentary system of pulleys and wires inside the metal casing allows his bionic hands to grip and hold objects, although there is no information from the Daily Fail on exactly how he managed the herculean task of making the false limbs without any hands.

“I control them with movements from my elbows and I can work, love normally and feed myself just like anyone else," he explained.

"The only drawback is that steel is quite heavy so they're tiring to wear and get hot or cold in the extremes of summer and winter."

Rather than audition for a starring role as the next Bond villain, Sun is now apparently looking to help other disabled folk in need of prosthetic limbs.